


Magic and Daemons

by Vimtuous (HappyEight)



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-01-19 11:21:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12409365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyEight/pseuds/Vimtuous
Summary: AU first book. Daemons are real.





	1. Chapter 1

Harry woke to the sound of Dudley and Blandina stomping down the staircase. As if it wasn't bad enough that Dudely weighed enough to shake the dust loose above his head, his daemon, Blandina was currently the form of something very large and heavy. Probably a pig because it was the form that she had already started to take a liking to, and because the one time she had changed into an elephant on the staircase, she'd cracked a few of the stairs. 

Aunt Petunia hadn't been able to directly blame Harry for the incident, but she'd made it clear that as far as she was concerned it was Harry's fault anyways. She'd made him do yard work for a month to help "pay off his debt" for the contract they had to hire to replace the staircase. As much as they would force Harry to do manual labor around the house, contracting was beyond his skillset. 

Ceridwyn, Harry's daemon, was currently in the form of a tiny sparrow. She made a little noise of frustration and ruffled her feathers. She didn't always take the form of such small animals, but shoved in the tiny closet under the stairs, it was easier for both of them, the less room she took up.

"Do we really have to go out there?" She whispered in Harry's ear. She shifted forms, taking on the shape of a white ermine, and cuddling against Harry's neck. "Can't we just pretend to sleep all day?"

"Aunt Petunia will be furious if we ruin Dudley's 'special day," Harry replied to her tiredly.

"I know," Ceridwyn agreed with him, sounding as crestfallen as he felt, which was exactly that, being that she was his daemon.

At that moment, Aunt Petunia started banging on the door to the closet, shouting at Harry that he needed to get up and come help with breakfast. 

Harry made his way into the kitchen, not at all ready to deal with the rest of the day, but wanting to get the whole affair done with as quickly as possible.

Uncle Vernon was already sitting in the kitchen, a cup of coffee and his morning paper in front of him. He glanced up at Harry, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously at Ceridwyn who still in the form of an ermine, riding on Harry's shoulder. Despite the fact that Uncle Vernon's own daemon was a toad, he still made it very clear what he thought about people who had Daemons he disapproved of. He was also utterly convinced that it was only a matter of time before Ceridwyn settled into something sufficiently damning for him to write his nephew off for good. 

Harry was almost positive that no matter what Ceridwyn settled as, Uncle Vernon was going to disapprove. Snake were slimey, rodents were sneaky, dogs were brainless, felines rude. The list went on and on. Most of the time, he tried not to pay any attention to his Uncle's snide remarks. Obviously not everyone that who had a rodent was sneaky. His teacher last year had a lovely little grey and white rat for a demon, and she was one of the sweetest and smartest women that Harry had ever met.

"Hurry up, boy, watch this!" Aunt Petunia told him in her shrill voice, shoving him towards the stove and the cooking sausages. Her little poodle daemon eyed Ceridwyn. She'd been known to nip Harry's Daemon if she got too close. Luckily, unlike if Aunt Petunia owed a regular poodle, Harry didn't have to worry about Tiarnan biting his ankle's

Dudley and Blandina were already seated at the kitchen table among an absolutely enormous pile of presents. He had more presents at the table than Harry had seen in his entire life.

Ceridwyn turned into a little green snake and wrapped herself around Harry's neck. He didn't like being jealous of all of the presents Dudley and Blandina got every year for their birthday, but sometimes it was hard not to be. Life wasn't fair for Harry. And as Uncle Vernon liked to remind him, it wasn't fair to them that Harry's parents had died and forced him and his Aunt to look after him.

Harry tried to focus on cooking breakfast as Dudley screamed and shouted about he had fewer presents this year than last year. Secretly, Harry thought that it really didn't matter how many presents he actually had piled up. It was unlikely he would or even count them all up at that point. Aunt Petunia could have told him he had 45 presents and he probably wouldn't have known the difference.

"What's he smirking about, Mummy?" Dudley's whinny voice came, piercing into Harry's amusing thought.

"Boy, are you almost done cooking that sausage yet?" Uncle Vernon fumed, face turning an alarming shade of purple and tried to swivel in his chair to look at Harry. His little toad dameon, Éimhear, was staring at Harry disdainfully from the kitchen, as if she herself wasn't a literal toad. Usually, Harry didn't have a problem with toads, but he made an exception for Éimhear. Non-Daemon toads were much more pleasant.

"It's almost done, Uncle Vernon," Harry told him, quickly wiping the smile off his face. It wasn't worth being punished over from just thinking mean things about Dudley. 

Harry dumped the cooked food onto a plate and deposited it onto the kitchen table before returning to the kitchen to make his own breakfast. He would have loved some of the sausage and the pancakes that Aunt Petunia had already put out, but he knew that was never going to happen. He contented himself with a bowl of plain corn flake cereal and milk, sitting at the far end of the table, trying to be as undisturbing to Dudley and the massacre he was currently inflicting upon his presents.

When the phone rang, Harry thought nothing of it, pushing his corn flakes around and wondering what he was going to be doing that afternoon at Mrs. Figgs house. 

"Vernon," She hissed at her husband and cast a glance at Harry. "Mrs. Figg has had an emergency and can't take the boy."

It was the tone of her voice that caught Harry's attention, and he turned his head slightly to hear what the adults were saying to each other. He didn't need to have bothered. 

"I am not taking him with us to the zoo!" Uncle Vernon bellowed, his frog Daemon swelling up to far bigger than her normal size, reflecting her person's irritation. Tiarnan's ruff raised in response to Uncle Vernon's raised voice at his wife, though Aunt Petunia's own demenor did not change all that much.

"Well, I'm not having him stay here in the house by himself." Aunt Petunia tutted back at him, "He'd probably burn the entire thing down."

Dudley started wailing then, about how they were all ruining his birthday, and suddenly it became a cooperative effort on Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's half to get him smiling and not crying again.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much his family could do about the situation. To his delight, within the hour, Harry found himself, for the first time in his life, on his way to the zoo.

He didn't care how many times Dudley and his friend, Piers, poked and picked at him in the car ride there, he was more excited than he could remember being about anything. Ceridwyn could barely contain herself, now a small gray squirrel, practically vibrating on Harry's shoulder. 

The zoo was everything that Harry imagined it was and better. Ceridwyn flitted from form to form, mimicking all of the animals that they saw, seeing if any of them were the right form for herself. At first Piers' and Dudley's daemons did the same, until Dudley made a comment about how childish it was for Harry to be so excited and their Daemons stopped flicking through forms. 

At one point, Dudley began to shout that he wanted an ice cream, and Harry didn't even care how obnoxious his cousin was being or that he wasn't going to get an ice cream, either. Ceridwyn was currently a Rainbow Lorikeet, and kept stretching out her wings for Harry to look at the multitude of colors and admire. He thought that she might actually be having more fun than he was. It wasn't often that she was able to take on any shape that she liked, given how small their "bedroom" was and it made him happy to see her literally get to stretch her wings. 

Harry patiently waited slightly to the side of the the rest of the group while the other boys got their treats, handing over some of the pocket money they'd each been given for the day.

"And what about you, young man?" The woman handing out the ice cream asked. Harry glanced at her Daemon, also a Rainbow Lorikeet, though settled, and blushed slightly realizing where Ceridwyn had gotten her inspiration. 

"Uh," Harry faltered, not expecting to be put on the spot. "I'm don't-"

"Ah, spent all your money in one place huh?" The woman said with a laugh, and pulled a cone out of the cooler, "This one's on me. My favorite is the Super Choco Fudge Cone!"

"T-Thank you!" Harry stammered, taking the cone from the woman. The woman's lorikeet Daemon did a little dance on her shoulder, fluffing up her brightly coloured plumage. Ceridwyn did a little return dance, though much shier after the pair of them had been put on the spot like that. 

Uncle Vernon looked like he wanted to knock the ice cream cone right out of Harry's hand, but miraculously managed to refrain himself. Aunt Petunia and her Daemon were looking anywhere but Harry and his impressive ice cream, as if she couldn't see him and the cone they might not exist. 

The ice cream was some of the best he had ever had in his life. Occasionally he'd had some at school on an especially hot day, when they were given ice pops for dessert. Never anything like the mountain of ice cream and chocolate he currently held though. Ceridwyn even took the opportunity to taste some of the ice cream, although she herself didn't need to eat or usually care to. She chirruped a little though at the sweet coolness of the ice cream, doing another little lorikeet dance for Harry, making him laugh and almost drop his cone. 

He liked the zoo slightly less when they went through the aquarium section after and Ceridwyn insisted on turning into a octopus and he had to hold her while she flopped all over him. She didn't last long like that, thankfully, and soon Harry found himself holding an otter instead, which was much better as far as he was concerned.

They almost made it through the entire day without any problems. 

Ceridwyn had always liked turning into snakes, and in the reptile house, there were plenty of different kinds for her to try out, her scales going through a myriad of sizes and colors as they looked in each and every tank.

Dudley and Blandina had other feelings about the reptiles. Snakes especially fell into the "No son of mine!" category that Uncle Vernon liked to bellow about, as if Dudley actually had any sway over how Blandina would eventually settle. Harry doubted it would be a snake though, seeing as how very clever and graceful they could be, and how very stupid and offish Dudley was all of the time.

"This is boring," Dudley whined, plinking on the glass of a very large tank that was supposedly home to one of the largest snake at the zoo. The snake was not doing much, basking on a large rock, and unmoving. 

Ceridwyn was a pretty little corn snake wrapped around Harry's wrist, though she'd picked an unlikely color for her scales as they shimmered in pastel rainbows, clearly reminiscent of the lorikeet form she was recently fluttering around in. She was clearly still having a good time, even if Dudley was being awful.

Harry apologized to the snake that Dudley had been bothering after his cousin wandered away.

"Harry?" Ceridwyn said looking at her human in brief confusion. 

Harry was distracted though, as the snake in the tank suddenly raised it's head up, looking right at Harry.

"Can you understand me?" Harry asked, feeling both slightly foolish and awestruck at the same time, as the snake dipped it's head slightly in what Harry could only assumed was the snake equivalent of a nod. 

"Harry!" Ceridwyn hissed in his ear, sounding very upset.

"Mummy, look what the snake is doing!" Dudley shrieked from across the room. A second later, Harry found himself being shoved onto the floor, landing hard on his side. Dudley shrieked again, but not words this time. There was a loud splash and Harry looked at the snake tank and realized that Dudley was inside the tank now, and the snake was outside of the tank. The snake was causing all sorts of mayhem in the reptile house as other patrons suddenly realized that it was in fact a very real and very large snake, not in it's enclosure. Harry could have sworn that it hissed a "thanks" as it slithered by him before moving on it's way.

Harry's eyes widened in shock as his watched cousin gasped and screamed trying to pull himself out of the snakes water and then suddenly realizing that he could not get out of the tank anymore. Aunt Petunia's scream of terror filled the air as she locked onto the obscenely loud sound of her son, splashing in the tank. He really did look like a pig at that moment Harry thought, and couldn't help a small surprised laugh that escaped from him. 

"This is your doing," Uncle Vernon snarled in a low growl, grabbing Harry from behind, picking him up off the ground by the back his shirt. Harry let out an "Eep!" of surprise as he was lifted clean off the ground for a moment before his Uncle dropped him roughly on his feet. "I told you no funny business today, boy."

Harry gulped hard and did not move from out of Uncle Vernon's grip for the rest of the trip to the zoo. They had to wait for a bewildered group of zoo workers to recapture the snake, and let Dudley out of the tank. The zoo staff asked all sorts of questions, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Dudley just kept moaning about the glass disappearing and reappearing. Eventually, they let the family go when they realized that it wasn't some sort of practical joke and Uncle Vernon started to threaten legal action.

"He ruined my special day!" Dudley wailed the entire car ride home. 

Harry shrank in his seat, trying to make himself as small as possible, not wanting to know what kind of punishment was waiting for him when he got home. Ceridwyn was a mouse, curled up at Harry's shirt collar, small and staying in close contact with her human for comfort. He didn't know how Dudley had ended up in the snake tank, and he didn't know how he could have played a part in it, no matter how much he would have wanted something like that to happen to his awful cousin. Glass didn't just disappear and reappear like that. There was no such thing as magic. 

Uncle Vernon dragged Harry into the house as soon as they arrived at home. He practically threw Harry into his closet, and Harry stumbled into the cramped space, catching his knees on his cot, and falling forward. Then the door slammed shut behind him and Uncle Vernon slammed the lock on the door hard enough that it sounded like it might actually break. 

"You will stay in there and not make another sound until I say otherwise!" Uncle Vernon bellowed in the hallway before stomping off. Harry could hear Dudley and Blandina snicker through their snivelling as they passed by the door, before starting up their wailing again about how Harry had ruined his Birthday.

Harry curled up on his cot, tucking his legs up. Ceridwyn shifted into a cat, and curled up next to him, purring slightly, trying to comfort him, though she was just as miserable as he was. He laid there in the dark, gently stroking Ceridwyn's soft coat, trying not to listen to his Aunt and Uncle placate Dudley, and instead tried to think about the zoo, and how different his life would be if the ice cream woman with the Rainbow Lorikeet had been his Aunt instead. 

It was a nice thought.


	2. Chapter 2

"Harry, what happened at the zoo with the snake?" Ceridwyn was currently a little, green snake, coiled up on Harry's chest looking at him as he looked down at her. They were still in the closet, though Aunt Petunia had let him out to use the bathroom every once in awhile. He'd only had a can of cold soup to eat though since yesterday and the hunger was making him especially dizzy and tired.

"What are you talking about Cer?" Harry mumbled at her, tracing his finger over her scales, liking how they felt. It was always reassuring as well, to touch his Daemon, and feel the little sparks of recognition through their bond, that she was part of him as much as he was part of her.

"You talked to that snake, Harry!" She says insistently, raising up slightly to look at him. "And then something happened to that glass. We did something at the zoo!"

"We didn't do anything Cer," Harry said, "And snakes can't understand people unless they're a Daemon. You know that."

"We did something!" She insists, voicing feelings that Harry held deep down, but was stubbornly not acknowledging. "We did something  _special_."

Harry rolled over suddenly onto his side, and Ceridwyn slid off of his chest with a surprised hiss, flopping onto the cot next to him.

"We didn't do anything, and definitely not something special if we did." Harry muttered at her, grouchily, "You heard Uncle Vernon."

"I don't care what you say," Ceridwyn said definitely slithering away and coiling up on the floor away from Harry. He felt the lose and the distance immediately, even if she wasn't very far from him. "We both know that something happened and I know even if you won't admit it."

It wasn't often that Harry fought with his Daemon, and he didn't like it. 

"Cer," Harry said, reaching down to run a finger lightly across her scales. "C'mon don't be like that."

"Don't be stupid then," She said back, not looking at him. "I know you're scared of Uncle Vernon. I'm scared of him too of course. But there's no reason for you to lie to me. I am you."

Harry sighed. 

"I know Cer," He said, "But I don't know  _what_ happened, besides the fact that  _something_ happened, and Uncle Vernon blamed us, like he always blames us when something weird happens. I just get scared about what he might do. I don't want him to hurt you."

"He can't do anything to you when we're in here," She said, shifting into a small fox, and hopping up on the bed next to Harry. "And he can't hear what we say in here anyways, so there's no need to pretend that nothing happened."

Daemons were sensible like that.

Their banishment in the closet lasted for a few days. After that, they were allowed to be free again, and Harry took every opportunity to be outside of the house as much as possible. He would do whatever chores his Aunt had lined up for him and then slip away for the rest of the day.

Their first day outside, Ceridwyn took the chance to go through some of the form she'd taken at the zoo, but it didn't take long for her to lose interest. Much of the excitement from their zoo trip had diminished in the last few days, and while neither of them were sad that they had so many good memories, it was hard to feel quite as good about them when they'd just spent a week trapped in a closet.

Dudley and his friends were also as awful as ever, and Harry and Ceridwyn made as much of an effort as they could to avoid them. Unfortunately, that wasn't always possible.

"Look at the little freak and his freakish Daemon," Dudley taunted Harry, one day when they snuck up behind him at the park. "Sitting alone on the swings all by themselves."

Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes. The only reason that Harry and Ceridwyn spent so much time by themselves was because Dudley had done everything in his power to make sure that no other children would want to play with Harry, on fear of having Dudley beat the snot out of them. Dudley may not have been the smartest boy, but he was definitely one of the biggest for their age, and most of the other kids steered clear of both Harry and Dudley, just to be safe.

Instead of rising to Dudley's challenge, Harry hopped off the swing and started walking away. Ceridwyn fluttered from the top of the swingset after Harry, flying closely to him.

"Hey!" Dudley shouted at Harry's retreating back, "We're talking to you."

Harry was watching out of the corner of his eye, so he was ready for his cousin when the other boy tried to jump on him. He stepped nimbly out of the way. Ceridwyn wasn't so lucky unfortunately, and while Blandina wasn't fast enough to catch her, Pier's Daemon, Eudokia was more comfortable in fast and nimble forms. Harry felt as Eudokia, in the shape of a crow, smashed into Ceridwyn who was only a small sparrow. Ceridwyn shriek and Harry felt a lump rise in his throat as Blandina jumped into the fray as well.

The three Daemons fluttered and shifted as they fought, changing from fur to feather from one growl and snarl to the next.  He felt his anger at the other boys rise in him, and suddenly, there was a squealing coming not from Ceridwyn, but from from the other two Daemon's. Harry's anger morphed into surprise as he watched Ceridwyn shift into a form that he had never seen her take.

Typically, Daemon's only took the form of real animals, though it was possible for them to take the shape of imaginary ones. Ceridwyn was currently something right out of a story book. She was the size of a small horse, covered in scales and had two leathery wings sprouting from her back. She was a bluish color so dark she was almost black. 

The other two Deamons fell away from Ceridwyn all at once. She let out a growl that was deep and menacing, snapping at them as they frantically scurried back to their humans. Piers scooped Eudokia up into his arms and Blandina ran and hide behind Dudley, an actual chicken at that moment.

"See!" Dudley said, stumbling backwards away from Harry and his Dragon Daemon, "You're a total freak! Just wait until I tell Mummy and Daddy about this!"

Ceridwyn snarled deep in her chest and snapped at Dudley, as if she might actually try and bite him, though she and Harry knew they would do no such thing. No matter how much they disliked their cousin and how awful he might be to them, a Daemon touching another person without their permission, and especially to do harm, was unthinkable. 

The implication of biting was enough though, and both boys ran out of the park. Or Piers ran and Dudley waddled and stumbled after his friend, shouting and wailing as he did so. Harry watched the two in delight, but already he was worried about what might be waiting for them when they got home.

Ceridwyn was making a deep sound in her throat, and for a second, Harry thought that she might be choking, until he realized that she was laughing. 

"You look amazing Ceridwyn," Harry said running a hand along Ceridwyn's neck feeling the smooth scales underneath his fingertips. 

"We are amazing," Ceridwyn said, sounding more smug than usual. 

"Yeah, but we're going to have to pay for that when we get home," Harry said with a sigh. 

Ceridwyn's wings dropped and she sighed as well, "I know, but it was worth it I think. They were being so awful, and ganging up on me, two against one wasn't fair at all. Maybe they'll think twice about doing it next time."

"You're right," Harry agreed with her, "It was probably worth it."

Harry looked thoughtfully at his Daemon, "Are you going to settle as that then?"

There were certain Daemons that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia looked upon as no good, and there were certain Daemons that, if Ceridwyn were to settle as, Harry was almost sure that they really would kick him out of the house. They worked very hard on maintaining their image of a perfect normal family. "Normal" was a word that was very much in use in the Dursley household, and it had already been made blatantly obvious to Harry that he did not confirm to the idea of "Normal" that his Aunt and Uncle prescribed. 

Ceridwyn looked taken aback. 

"I don't think so no. This is fun, but it doesn't really feel quite right."

"I think," Harry said, "That's probably a good thing. We don't really need any more attention being drawn to ourselves."

Ceridwyn frowned at her person but did not disagree. It was something that they agreed to disagree on. Harry would have prefered if his Daemon would settle as something that wasn't out of the ordinary, a dog, or a bird of some sort. Ceridwyn made it clear that she would settle as whatever she was supposed to settle as, ordinary or not. She did change back into a bird, though a hawk this time, not the tiny sparrow.

They waited for a long time, before eventually heading back to Privet Drive, wanting to delay their punishment for a long as possible. Harry wasn't going to be surprised if it ended up with them back in the closet for another week. Ceridwyn was right though. They had taught Dudley and his friend a lesson, and if it made them think twice about ganging up on them, it was worth it.

When the street lights started to flicker on though, and they couldn't put off going home any longer, without the risk of being locked out for the night, they finally trudged up the walkway to Privet Drive, and let themselves into the house as quietly as possible. 

It turned out that they had little to worry about.

Dudley was prancing about the house with a particularly stupid outfit on and an odd looking stick in his hand. Blandina was no longer a chicken, and was perching on Dudley's straw hat in the form a of a little mouse. He'd received his acceptance letter to attending Smeltings for the coming school year, and Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia couldn't have been prouder.

As soon as Dudley saw Harry, his eyes opened widely, clearly recalling their previous interaction that afternoon. Uncle Vernon's voice boomed through the house though, before anything else could come of it, demanding that Harry come into the kitchen.

Harry scurried off to where the dinner dishes were waiting for him to wash, and his own sad plate of cold food was waiting for him to scarf down.

The next couple of days, Dudley took to whacking Harry with his Smelting Stick whenever no one was looking. Or on a couple occasions, even when they were. Uncle Vernon just let Dudley know that he was going to have to be stealthier at Smelting's and he better get as much practice in if he was going to hold his own against the other boys.

Outside the house though, Harry and Ceridwyn were left to their own devices, much to their relief. Their dragon stunt had paid off and for once they were able to do what they wanted without having to worry about Dudley and his gooney friends harassing them. They managed a sort of peace for all about a week before the letters started coming. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look another chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

"Go get the mail, boy," Uncle Vernon ordered Harry, as soon as they heard the mailman push it through the slot. Harry was mid bite of his cereal, but obediently put his spoon down and fetched the mail for his Uncle. Ceridwyn clung to his shoulder, bouncing along as a busy tailed gray squirrel.

There was never anything in the mail for Harry, of course. He lived with his only living family, and there was no one else that would send him anything. Which made it even more surprising when resting on top of the pile of mail, was a letter addressed to him.

And not just to him, but specifically, to his address, "The Cupboard Under the Stairs."

Harry froze in shock for a moment staring at the mail in his hand.

"Harry hide it!" Ceridwyn whispered frantically in his ear, snapping him out of his stupor.

She was right, if they went back into the kitchen with the mail, and his Aunt and Uncle saw the letter, they would definitely take it from him. He had to move quickly, and hope that they didn't see him with it.

His cupboard was in the hallway, back on the way to the kitchen. If anyone walked from the dining table to the kitchen, they would definitely see him, but from the angle his family was currently sitting at, they hopefully wouldn't notice him slide the thick envelope under the crack under the door.

He could feel Ceridwyn's tension, as her little claws gripped into his shoulder, keeping an eye for them, as Harry quickly knelt down to slide the envelope. The letter made a horrible. loud sound, as the paper rubbed against the wood of the door and Harry for sure thought that there was no way that his Aunt and Uncle wouldn't notice that he had been up to something and come storming down the hallway, demanding to know what he was doing with the mail.

After a very long second, the envelope was safely tucked under the door and Harry started to righten himself and keep walking to the kitchen. He was almost upright, when his Aunt passed by the doorway, going to the sink to dump her empty breakfast plate.

"Pick up your feet," She snapped, barely glancing at Harry. "I don't want you stumbling and snagging my carpets."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry said immediately, with relief. She must have thought he tripped, and suspected nothing. His letter was safe.

He handed Uncle Vernon the rest of the mail, and when his Uncle didn't make any comment about the fact that should be more mail, Harry figured that he had successfully gotten away with it secreting away the letter. 

Immediately, he wanted to go find out what was in the envelope and what the letter that was addressed to him said. Instead, he sat back down at the table, and continued to eat his now very soggy cereal, though he barely tasted it and the texture didn't bother him in the slightest. 

He was going to have to wait until that night, when the rest of his family  was asleep and he was once again locked in his cupboard for the evening, before he was going to be able to look at it. It was the most suspense he had had about anything in as long as he could remember.

The rest of the day was spent in agonizing slowness. Aunt Petunia had edging the walkways in the garden by hand in the sun and each time he thought that an hour or two must have certainly gone by, he was disappointed to find out it had only been another dozen minutes or so. Ceridwyn could barely contain her own excitement, buzzing around the garden as a bumblebee one moment and  humming bird the next, unable to stay still at all.

Finally though, the hours ticked by and Harry and Ceridwyn found themselves lying in bed in their cupboard, letter resting underneath their cot where Ceridwyn had quickly hidden it as soon as the cupboard door had been opened. so as not to alert anyone as to what they might have. They waited and listened to the sounds of their family getting ready for bed upstairs, showers taken care of, teeth brushed, the distant sound of Aunt Petunia telling Dudley he needed to turn off his computer and go to sleep and eventually the sound of the house falling quietly asleep.

Harry waited until he was absolutely sure that no one was going to come downstairs before clicking on the light in the closet. Ceridwyn pulled the letter out  and brought up for Harry to open. 

He hadn't gotten a good look at it before he'd hidden it that morning and right away it was clear that it wasn't an ordinary letter. The envelope was thick and textured, like some of the letters with cards that Aunt Petunia got around Christmas time or that Dudley's Smeltings acceptance letter had come in. Even more peculiar was the back, where there was a strange stamp of a crest and the word "Hogwarts". Also it was sealed with wax, which was something that Harry had only ever seen in movies and read about in books. It wasn't something that people normally did.

Carefully, Harry broke the wax seal and opened the envelope. The letter inside was written on a similar style thick paper, that was creamy in color. Harry read through the letter first with confusion, and then with bitter disappointment. Ceridwyn sat next to him, a tabby cat, with her ears flat against her head, tail flicking back and forth in agitation as she read along with him. 

An acceptance letter with phrases like: _Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, Warlock, owl, Dumbledore._

A school supply list with things like: _A Pointed hat, A cloak, A cauldron, Magical Text Books._

Harry hadn't thought that Dudley had it in him to come up with something this creative, but clearly he had gotten help from someone. It was a cruel joke, obviously payback for Ceridwyn taking the form of a dragon at the park early in the week. He wouldn't have been surprised if his Aunt or Uncle had helped Dudley, to help him get his payback on Harry and teach him a lesson. 

"He's just an awful boy," Ceridwyn told him, "We'll grow up and when we're old enough we'll leave and never have to deal with him or Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon ever again."

"No one would ever send us mail anyways," Harry said, letting the letter drop to the floor next to the cot, and clicking the light off and sending the tiny area into total darkness. He curled up in bed and wrapping his too thin blanket around himself. He tried not to be angry at himself, for getting his hopes up and getting excited about something that was so obviously a trap. 

Ceridwyn curled up next to him, snuggling up against him both for her comfort and his own. They did not sleep that night.

In the morning, Harry was in a tired haze. He glanced at the letter on the floor of his cupboard, before kicking it under his cot, thinking that he would figure out a way to get rid of it later. He was fine with letting Dudley think the letter had gotten lost in the mail. Ceridwyn clung limply to his shoulder, a tiny little Pocket Mouse.

They sat and listlessly ate their breakfast. Harry barely even flinched when Dudley whacked his shin under the table with his Smelting Stick, Blandina in the form of a rather pretty and exotic looking cat, looking very smug with herself. Clearly, Dudley was enjoying whatever seemed to be wrong with Harry that morning, and Blandina was displaying that for the whole kitchen to see. Harry might have even been surprised at her creativity if he wasn't so mad at himself and his cousin. The mail came, Uncle Vernon ordered Harry to go get it, and he didn't even look at the fairly large stack of mail it as he grabbed it, making extra sure not to even, and deposited it in front of Uncle Vernon. 

Harry had barely sitten back down when Uncle Vernon began shouting.

"What is this!" Uncle Vernon slammed his fist on the table, making the entire thing rattle and shake. Aunt Petunia let out a small gasp of surprise. Everyone in the kitchen looked at Uncle Vernon in alarm. The man was quickly turning an alarming color of purple and his toad Daemon was swelling to an astounding size. "Petunia!"

He shoved some of the mail in his wife's face, and instead of scolding her husband for his temper and slamming things, she immediately turned white as a sheet, snatched the mail out of her husband's hand, and quickly left the kitchen with it.

"Do not leave the house today!" Uncle Vernon said to Harry menacingly, before waddling after his wife, panting furiously like he had just run a marathon.

"What did you do?" Dudley asked with glee staring at Harry. 

Harry did not know what he had done. But, he had caught a glimpse of the letter that Aunt Petunia had taken from Uncle Vernon and he would wager quite a lot that it was a very similar looking letter to the one he had in his cupboard. The revelation turned his previous assumption on it's head. Dudley would have recognized a letter that he sent to Harry and clearly Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had not helped him create it.

So if they weren't responsible for it, then who was?

Harry could hear the muffled voices of his Aunt and Uncle in the den. They were clearly upset about the mail, but Harry couldn't hear what they were saying. He was not expecting what came next when they eventually came back into the kitchen.

"Harry, we're moving you into the spare bedroom." Aunt Petunia said, her mouth tight, and her face was still very pale. There was no sign of the mail anywhere.

Harry didn't understand. They didn't have a spare bedroom. Dudley understood though, clearly in better form than Harry was. Blandina immediately puffed up, her ears flattening against her head, as she let out a low growl. 

"That's my room!" He protested,"What am I supposed to do with all of my stuff?"

"We'll get rid of the broken toys and you can move the rest into your bedroom. Right now. Get to it." Aunt Petunia snapped catching both Harry and Dudley off guard. Harry didn't think that he had ever heard his Aunt snap as his cousin. Dudley was also dumbfounded, and didn't even bother to argue as he wandered upstairs. 

Aunt Petunia wouldn't let Harry and Ceridwyn out of the backyard that day, though Harry couldn't understand why. Obviously, whatever was in the letter was upsetting to her, but as far as Harry could tell it was a joke of some sort. After all, magic wasn't real. 

"Weird things do happen around us though," Ceridwyn said quietly to him, as they pulled weeds out of Aunt Petunia's flower beds.

Harry didn't answer her. He thought that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were so upset about the situation, because it threatetened thier idea of a normal life. 

"What about moving us into the other bedroom though?" Ceridwyn asked him, trying to point out the flaws in his reasoning.

"The neighbors would probably say something about us living in a closet under the stairs," Harry told her with a shrug. Someone else knew where he slept, clearly having labeled it on the envelope. It had made sense when he thought that it had been Dudley messing around with him, but if someone else that wasn't part of the family knew, that was a completely different story. Even Mrs. Figg, who had baby sat for Harry for years, probably didn't know that his Aunt and Uncle made him sleep in a closet. 

After they finished weeding the garden, Aunt Petunia sent them upstairs to wash up and go to their room and be quiet until it was dinner time. It was very surreal. Harry and Ceridwyn had never had their own whole room before. There was an actual bed and dresser in there too, and besides some random bits of broken things that Dudley still hadn't cleared out, everything in there was now theirs. 

Harry flopped onto the bed and thought that he had never felt anything so comfortable before. There were no springs digging into him, and there was an actual sheet set and bed spread on the bed. They were a little dusty, and smelled odd from having been on the bed for so long without anyone having used it, but Harry honestly didn't care. He didn't really have a good idea of what was going on right then, but he was willing to enjoy some of the results of it. 

Because this kind of treatment wasn't going to last. He was sure of that. Ceridwyn didn't disagree with that either. Something peculiar was going on, and eventually it was all going to come to a head, and the whole family would know exactly what was going on. When that happened, Harry and Ceridwyn were likely the ones that were going to pay the price for it. Then it would be back into the closet for them, and they would be in even more trouble than ever.

In the mean time though, they had a mystery on their hands. They hadn't been able to smuggle the envelope up with them, but Harry was itching to get his hands back on it and look at it. 

They made a plan to wake up early the next morning and and grab it out of the closet and sneak back upstairs before anyone else in the family was awake. Harry needed to look at the letter again with a burning curiosity and he felt that if only he could see it again, some of the questions about what was going on might be answered for him. 

It was no use though. Uncle Vernon was camped out downstairs in front of the door and they just about stepped on his face in the dark hallway. 

Uncle Vernon popped up with a roar as Harry stumbled over his Uncle laying on the ground. Flailing to escape the blankets that he had wrapped himself in, he chased Harry all the way back upstairs, and slammed the door on him, locking Ceridwyn and Harry in the spare bedroom, cowering against the wall, hearts hammering and unable to keep from imagining what their Uncle might have done if he had caught them before they made it into the bedroom. They had both seen his clenched fists, right before he'd slammed the door. 

“He wouldn't do something like that,” Ceridwyn said, trying to sound sure of herself, but Harry didn't believe her, and he was positive that she didn't fully believe herself. Dudley had a nasty temper after all, and sometimes the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Harry didn't want to find out what his Uncle's breaking point was, and he had a feeling they were close.

“I don't know what's going on Cer, but I've never seen him and Aunt Petunia act like this before, and I don't want to take any more chances,” Harry told her firmly. “I don't know what these letters are all about, and as much as I want to know, I don't think it's safe.”

As it turned out, they didn't have any say in the matter. They spent all day locked in their new bedroom, and the next morning, they were awoken to a very strange sight.

There was a tapping on Harry's window, just as the sun was starting to rise. Harry and Ceridwyn were already awake, listening for the sounds of the other members of the house to wake up for the day. It was Sunday, and as such, no one in the house was expecting any kind of mail that day, meaning that Uncle Vernon was able to sleep in his own room that night, instead of keeping watch over the mail slot(which is apparently what he had been doing the night before, as Harry had heard him screaming about more letters later that morning while still locked in the bedroom).

Harry ignored the tapping at first, thinking it was nothing more than leaves or some other debris tapping on his window. They were on the second floor after all.

But then the tapping increased in both volume and persistence and Harry realized there was definitely something outside of his window, trying to get his attention.

He was not expecting to see a large barn owl, perched precariously on the ledge, tapping insistently on the glass. 

There wasn't just one owl either. There were owls perched outside, all over Privet Drive. The bird were on fences and cars, and telephone wires, and just about anywhere else they could safety hang on.

“Uncle Vernon's not going to like this,” Harry muttered under his breath. He didn't let the owl into the room, even though that was clearly what it wanted from him.

Instead, he closed the curtains and tried to ignore the tapping of the birds beak on the glass, and hoped that it wouldn't break the window.

It wasn't long though before there was more tell tale yelling from his Uncle, and Harry and Ceridwyn practically jumped out of their skin as his Uncle barreled into their room, and pulled them out of it, dragging them awkwardly by one arm.

“Petunia! We're leaving right this minute.” Uncle Vernon yelled, “There are owls all over outside and I will not put up with this bloody nonsense. You told me there would be none of this kind of thing Petunia!"

Harry did not know what was going on. On the other hand, it seemed like his family only had just a slightly better idea of what was happening as well. Very quickly he found himself tossed into the car, with a very confused and half asleep Dudley shoved in after him. Uncle Vernon practically skidded out of the driveway, and owls quickly took to the air to get away from the car. 

Harry thought it was a wonder that none of the owls had been hit and watched the birds disappear out the back window as his Uncle took them away to some unknown location.

 

  
  


 

  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this keeps happening. I have no plans for this, and it will probably become less and less canon compliant than it already is as time goes on. Also I just started a new job so the chappy updates will probably be a little slower now.


	4. Chapter 4

They ended up in a hotel a couple hours drive away. The entire situation seemed ridiculous to Harry. They were all crammed into a double room, where Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were to share a bed, Dudley would get the other one, and Harry was to sleep on the floor. No one was allowed outside of the room. No one was allowed to talk about what is going on.

Harry sat in the corner trying to stay as far away from his other family members as possible. His Aunt and Uncle were pretending he didn't exist, but Dudley was looking like he wanted to jump on Harry and beat the snot out of him. It was their last week of summer vacation and as far as Dudley was concerned, Harry had done nothing but mess up this summer's vacation. The Zoo, the park, and now this. Them being camped out in a hotel room was currently just another red mark on his lengthening list of offences.

They ordered take out for dinner, and Harry was somewhat relieved to find that they actually had gotten something for him as well. Just a slightly dense roll and some overly hot curry, but far better than nothing.

Dudley eventually grew bored of complaining about Harry, and settled onto his bed with Blandina in her favored form of a pot bellied pig, to watch television, which due to the cramped circumstances, meant that Harry was also allowed to watch, something that he was not typically allowed to do, and was interesting just for the novelty of the situation. 

Eventually though, the family went to sleep and Harry settled on the floor with one of the duvet covers to wrap around himself, and his jacket as a pillow. He slept fitfully the entire night, his uncle's and cousin's snores rumbling through the hotel room, and he whispered to Ceridwyn that "No wonder Aunt Petunia was always in such a bad mood. She probably never gets any sleep laying in bed next to him all night." Ceridwyn giggled at him, but they both knew his joking wasn't very effective at raising their mood.

Some time later, Harry was jolted out of his light sleep by a extraordinarily loud booming noise. Something was hitting the door of the hotel room. Not knocking exactly because it actually sounded like someone was trying to knock the door clean off of it's hinges. 

Uncle Vernon sprang up in bed.

"We don't want any bloody room service! We're trying to sleep in here!" He bellowed at the door. The pounding continued though, and the large man rolled out of bed, fighting to untangle himself from the blankets as he went over to the door. 

"We don't want any-" He had swung the door open, yelling, only to stop mid sentence, the words apparently dying on his lips. "Who are you?"

"Name's Hagrid!" Boomed a voice from outside, "And I am looking fer Harry Potter."

"There's no Harry Potter's in here!" Uncle Vernon bellowed back and slammed the door in the callers face. 

Harry perked up from his location on the floor, both interested and terrified by what this person wanted with him. 

There was more knocking on the door at that point, while Uncle Vernon, leaned against it, his ample frame making an effective looking barrier to  anyone that might want to actually try and break into the room. Not effective enough though.

There was a burst of pink light, and suddenly Uncle Vernon and the door both came crashing into the room with a resounding "Bang!" Aunt Petunia screamed and scrambled out of her bed as well. She looked petrified , caught between wanting to get away from whoever was blocking the light in the doorway and going to help her husband. Her Daemon's ruff was completely up, the whites of his eyes showing. 

"Mummy!" Dudley whimpered from his bed, and Blandina let out a distressed oink. 

Harry was currently slowly inching his way into a standing position but keeping his back against the wall. Ceridwyn was wrapped tightly around the back of his neck a sleek marmot, trying to stay alert and inconspicuous at the same time. Harry's eyes were locked to the doorway, as he realized that it was still dark outside because there was a person managing to block the entire doorway, and not because it was actually still night anymore. He gulped, wondering what kind of person was that big.

"Harry!" Cried the voice again, as the figure somehow managed to squeeze through the doorway with only a small amount of effort. "I haven't seen you since yeh were just a baby! Oh, I'm so happy!"

Harry's eyes widened as he finally was able to take in the enormous man who had just knocked a door off it's hinges and Uncle Vernon flat on the floor.

Hagrid really was the most enormous person he had ever seen in his life. His head and face were covered in a tangle of thick bushy hair and his dark eyes were glistening with what Harry suspected were unshed tears. He was wearing an enormous coat, which looked far too warm for the weather. And perhaps even more peculiar, he was holding a very pink umbrella in one hand, like it was the most natural thing in the world. 

"Do ye-Do yeh recognize me?" Hagrid asked, and then shook himself, "Naw course yeh don't. But I'm sure you've heard about me."

"I'm-I'm sorry?" Harry said, uncertain as to where and who he would have heard about this giant of a man from. He clearly wasn't someone that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia knew. 

"They didn't tell yeh about me?" Hagrid said and his voice faltered a little, "Well no worries, there'll be plenty of time fer that later while we're getting yeh all ready fer school."

"I'm sorry," Harry said, frowning, "I'm not sure that I follow."

"We'll I'm here to take yeh to get yer school supplies o'course," Hagrid said, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. "Hogwarts term starts in a couple of days. I offered to help yeh collect yer things of course, special permission from the Headmaster." The giant sounded particularly proud of himself for this.

Harry stared blankly at the giant through all of this, both curiosity and confusion mounting. Ceridwyn had relaxed on a slight amount. Enough to let go of the back of his neck and shift to a sparrow sitting on his shoulder and eyeing the giant warily.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." Harry said, shaking his head. "Hogwarts? Headmaster?"

Hagrid the giant faltered at that, his face falling as his thick eyebrows knit together.

"What'd yeh mean you don't know what I'm talkin' about?" Hagrid said. "Every young witch and wizard goes Hogwarts when they turn eleven-"

On the bed Aunt Petunia made a kind of strangled meeping noise and fainted clean away, her little Daemon finally falling over completely into a pile on the ground.

The giant cut himself off at that, thought Harry suddenly found himself with both more questions at the giants statement, as well as more uncertainty.

"Witches?" He said said dazedly.

"Wizards?" Ceridwyn chirped with a faint nervous excitement.

"I plum almost forgot!" Hagrid cried, reaching into one of his  coat pockets and rummaging around in a space that Harry would have guessed was far larger than it looked based on the decent, if slightly dented cardboard box the giant pulled out of it was anything to go off of. "Happy Birthday, Harry!"

The giant shoved the box into Harry's hands and the newly turned eleven year old had no choice but to take it. Not knowing what else to do, he opened the box and felt a wave of emotion well up in his throat as he discovered that there was an amazing looking chocolate birthday cake with "Happy Birthday Harry!" scrawled across it in scarlet.

"That's enough!" Bellowed Uncle Vernon's voice from beneath the door where he seemed to have regained some sense of himself. With a great amount of heaving, he rolled and wiggled his massive body out from under it. Harry felt the instinctive urge to cower backwards again as his uncle heaved himself back up to a standing position. Uncle Vernon's face was practically purple he was seething with so much rage. His Daemon was puffing herself up as much as she could and making an angry clicking croak. "I will not have any more of this magical nonsense! I told Petunia I was done with it after the boy's parents got themselves murdered and there would be no more of it while he was in my house. No more magic, hogfarts or any of that shit. I don't care who you are or what you are! Take your mumbo jumbo and get out!"

"Murdered?" Harry said, feeling his stomach drop. Ceridwyn made a distressed chirrup.

"Mumbo Jumbo?" Hagrid said, sounding absolutely aghast. "Hogfarts?"

Harry realized he had never seen anyone actually stand up to his Uncle Vernon before. Hagrid drew himself up to his full height, which was well over Uncle Vernon's own, the giants face turned ruddy red with disbelief and anger.

"Jus' who de yeh think you are? Hogwarts is the bes' magical school in the world. Being a wizard is an honor and I am on orders from Albus Dumbledore himself to take Harry with me to collect his school things!" Hagrid bellowed in a voice that really didn't leave any kind of room for argument. "It was his mother and fathers wish that he go when he came of age, and bless their souls I'm going to make sure that happens today or my name isn't Rubeus Hagrid!"

"You knew my mum and dad?" Harry said with a faint sense of awe, the emotions beginning to choke up in his throat again. There was too much happening and none of it made any sense. Harry felt like if only he knew just a little more though, he might understand.

Uncle Vernon was completely unintelligible at that point, sputtering nonsense words and sounds as he tried to come up with some kind of cohesive language through his anger. Harry's mention of his mother and father seemed to have pushed his uncle completely over the edge.

"I'll not put up with this any more." Hagrid said firmly. "Harry, let's leave this horrible little place and get yeh sorted."

Harry was not sure what was going on anymore. But he did know that the man in front of him seemed to be telling the truth in some sense of another. His uncle surely wouldn't be so upset f there wasn't something peculiar going on here. And the giant knew his mother and his father. He would do just about anything to learn more about his parents.

"Let's go with him, Harry," Ceridwyn whispered excitedly into his ear. Harry nodded once, as if to gather his own bearings, clenched the box with the birthday cake firmly in his hands and side stepped around his uncle to stand next to the giant.

"Alright then," Harry said, feeling a deep sense of excitement at what the future was holding, "Let's go to Hogwarts."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can we say slowest update schedule ever? 
> 
> Thanks to all the lovely readers who have left comments. They really do make me want to write more!

**Author's Note:**

> There might be more to this. I don't know yet.


End file.
